Manufacture of buttons, brooches, belt-clasps, and buckle-fronts from horn and hoof.



STATES PATENT @FFTQE.

FRANCIS HAROLD GROVE, OF HALESOi/VEN, ENGLAND.

MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS, BROOCHES, BELT-CLASPS, AND BUCKLE-FRONTS FROM HORN AND HOOF.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 9, 1907.

Application filed August l, 1906. Serial No. 329,26 '7.

T0 (tZZ whom it may OOH/08PM.

Be it known that I, FRANCIS I'IAROLD GROVE, a subject of His Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at Halesowen, in the county of WV'orcester, England, manufacturers manager, have invented new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Buttons, Brooches, Belt-Clasps, and Buckle-Fronts from Horn and Hoof, of which the following is a specification.

This invention consists of the herein-described improvements in the manufacture of buttons, brooches, belt-clasps, and bucklefronts from horn and hoof. By manufacturing the said articles in accordance with this invention they can be produced in a large variety of beautiful colors and have a much better appearance and finish, and therefore be more salable than when made in the usual way.

As an example I will describe this inven tion as applied to the manufacture of a button. I take horn or hoof rough blanks of suitable size to produce the buttons required. These are then dyed black or any suitable color; but this dye only penetrates into what may be called the outer skin or surface of the blank. The dyed blanks are then warmed and compressed in dies to the proper shape and size of the required button. The dyed part or skin is then turned off the front and rim of the blank, so as to expose the semitransparent body of the same into which the dye has not penetrated and through which will be seen the dyed surface at the back, which will thus show through the semitransparent body of the button and impart to it a color which nearly approaches the color which the button has been dyed; but it will be found that if the blanks have been dyed black then when the front skin has been turned ofi, as aforesaid, the black back show' pattern or device on their front, then after the dyed blank has been compressed in dies and the front dyed surface has been turned off so as to expose the body of the blank, as aforesaid, the blank in this form is heated and compressed in dies which impress upon its front surface the required pattern or device, and then the button-blank is polished in the usual way or not polished.

It will be understood that the horn or hoof blanks for forming the buttons, brooches, beltclasps, and buckle-fronts must be dyed to a darker color or shade than the front of the finished article is required to have, because the black or colored dyed back when seen through the horn substance of the body of the same is considerably toned down and the front of the finished button is a very much lighter color or shade than was the front of the blank before the dyed front skin had been removed.

WVhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The improved method of manufacturing colored buttons brooches belt-clasps and buckle-fronts from horn and hoof consisting in dying the rough blanks, then warming and compressing the dyed blanks in dies and afterward turning off the front dyed surface and rim so as to show the dyed back through the scmitransparcnt horn or hoof substance at the front, and finally polishing the same, or leaving them dull, substantially as set forth.

2. The improved method of manufacturing colored buttons brooches belt-clasps and buckle-fronts from horn and hoof consisting in dyeing the rough blanks, then warming and compressing the dyed blanks in dies and afterward turning elf the front dyed surface and rim so as to show the dyed back through the semitransparent horn or hoof substance at the front and then warming and compressing a pattern or device 011 the front, and finally polishing the same, or leaving them dull, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FRANCIS HAROLD GROVE.

Witnesses:

CHARLES Boswoa'rn KETLEY, THOMAS JOHN ROWE. 

